Method of producing fabric having pick-and-pick pattern effects



R. wHEwELl. 2,448,201 METHOD 0F P UCING FABRIC HAVING PICK-AND- K PATTERN EFFECTS Filed Nov. 9, 1944 gn In n\\ n Aug. 31, 1948.

Patented Aug'. 31, 1948 UNITED STATES. PATENT o EFicE METHOD OF PRODUCINGFABRIC HAVING PICK-AND-PICK PATTERN EFFECTS Robert Whewell, New Bedford, Mass., assignor to United Merchants t Manufacturers, Inc., Wilmington, Del., a corporation of Delaware Application November 9, 1944, Serial No. 562,705

3 Claims.

This invention relates to the weaving of socalled pick-and-plck cloth, by which is meant cloth in which adjacent or consecutive fillings are or may be of a different denier (or character) as distinguished, for example, from the normal product of a box loom in which, -as the result of the across-and-return passage of a. shuttle, consecutive fillings are necessarily of the self-same yarn.

Pick-and-pick cloth, of course, is woven on a pick-and-pick loom. Such looms are not automatic and for this reason, and because of the greater skill required to operate them, they are generally slower to operate, even if available, and these disadvantages are reflected in the cost and availability of their products.

The present invention provides a method of producing the widest variety of fabrics, incorporating two or more types of yarn, by means of a 2 x 1 or 4 x 1 box loom and yet producing a pickand-pick effect in the finished cloth. By two or more types of yarn is meant yarns differing either in size, or color, or composition, or in any such respect as gives rise to what may be generally termed pattern eifects in the nished cloth as the result of utilizing the two or more types of filling. For purposes of illustration, the invention will be described as applied to the manufacture of fabric of the general character of that shown in Patent No. 1,936,495, that is, of the open mesh or marquisette type having designs formed therein by means of roving incorporated as filling.

In the accompanying drawings, Fig. 1 illustrates a piece of cloth of the character referred to and as may be made according to the present invention; and Fig. 2 illustrates the cloth in an According to the present invention this fabric is produced on a box loom and is made, in general, by first weaving two cloths or layers of cloth simultaneously, one above the other. In the weaving of the particular type of cloth illustrated in Fig. 1 on. say, a 2 x 1 box loom, one of the shuttles is loaded with one weight or type of filling, such as marked I in Fig. 1, and the other shuttle with roving, such as marked 2 in Fig. 1. Utilizing two sets of warps, as in the manufacture of double cloth, each shuttle is caused to travel in one direction in one shed and, on the return stroke, in the other shed. In the simple pattern eiect illus- 2 trated the shuttles operate alternately, each foilowing a complete stroke (across and return) of the other.

On each pass of the shuttle carrying the roving, this filling is floated across the warp thread-s, on one side of each of the two cloths, to the extent required by the pattern effect to be achieved. As will be understood, the floated lengths of roving are afterwards to be clipped off, so that the extent to which the roving is floated over the warp threads is represented by the blank areas (i. e. those without roving) in Fig. 1.

At this stage there will be produced two identical cloths, united at their edges and forming in effect a tunnel, and each presenting the appearance illustrated in Fig. 2. As shown in that figure, the roving wefts 3, 4, 5 and 6 are floated across the back of warp threads 1, 8, 9, I0 and I I, I2, I3 and I4; and the roving wefts I5, I6, I'I and I8 are floated across the back of warp threads I9, 20, 2| and 22; and so on.

In the next step in the method the double or tunnel form of cloth is slit at the edges, thereby producing two, identical, separate cloths each of the kind just described; and, finally. the floated lengths of roving are clipped off along the cu't lines indicated in Fig. 2 to produce the design or pattern effect of Fig. 1.

While the resulting fabric is of the general character of that described in the prior patent above identified, it has important advantages over such fabric, not only from the standpoint of the method of manufacture, as r'already pointed out, but also from the standpoint of the character of the designs or patterns which can be achieved. As will be understood by those skilled in the art, the pick-and-pick effect which characterizes cloth made by the method of this invention permits designs of lighter effect to be produced due to the elimination of need for consecutive picks (in one cloth) to'beyof the same yarn. This is of particular advantage in some instances where roving is used as the design or pattern medium in the filling. At the same time, however, the described method is applicable to the production of designs requiring any number of consecutive or repeated picks, whether odd or even, of the same yarn, as distinguished from the methods heretofore employed in which the filling picks necessarily ran in pairs or multiples of two.

In the light of the foregoing description, the following is claimed:

1. The method of producing pick-and-pick pattern effects which comprises weaving two cloth's simultaneously, utilizing shuttles carrying two types of filling, rst passing a shuttle in one direction in one of the cloths and on the return stroke in the other cloth. effecting the said passes of the same shuttle as many times as required by the design to be produced. thereafter passing another shuttle, carrying filling of Ia different type, likewise in one .of the cloths in one direction and in the other cloth' in the return direction, effecting the passes of the second shuttle as many times as required by the design to be produced, intermittently floating at least one of the llings over predetermined warp ends in the passage in each cloth of the shuttle carrying such filling, slitting the united edges of the two cloths to produce two cloths each exhibiting a pickand-pick eilect, and removing the oated portions of the filling to produce design areas ,jay

means of the woven-in portions of such lling.

2. The method of producing pick-and-pick pattern eects which comprises weaving two cloths simultaneously, utilizing shuttles carrying two types of filling, rst passing a shuttle in one direction 1n one of the cloths and on the return stroke in the other cloth, effecting the said passes of the same shuttle as many times as required by the design. to be produced, thereafter passing another shuttle, carrying lling of a different type, likewise in one of the cloths in one direction and in the other cloth in the return direction, effecting the passes of the second shuttle as many times as required by the design to be produced, and slitting the united edges of the two cloths to produce two cloths each exhibiting a pick-and-pick effect.

3. The method of producing pick-and-piclr pattern effects which comprises weaving two ieno weave cloths simultaneously, utilizing shuttles carrying two types of lling, rst passing a shuttle in one direction in one of the cloths and on the return stroke in the other cloth, thereafter passing another shuttle, carrying filling of a different type, likewise in one of the cloths in one direction and in the other cloth in the return direction, and slitting the common seh/ages of the two vcloths to produce two cloths each ezthibiting a pick-and-pick effect.

ROBERT WHEWELL.

nEFEnnNons CITED The following references are of record in the :file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

